The increase in the life expectancy of patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in the last decade is due to changes that have occurred in the area of preclinical studies. Understanding cancer pathophysiology and the emergence of new therapeutic options, including immunotherapy, would not be possible without proper research. Before new approaches to disease treatment are developed and introduced into clinical practice they must be preceded by preclinical tests, in which animal studies play a significant role. This review describes the progress in animal model development in kidney cancer research starting from the oldest syngeneic or chemically-induced models, through genetically modified mice, finally to xenograft, especially patient-derived, avatar and humanized mouse models. As there are a number of subtypes of RCC, our aim is to help to choose the right animal model for a particular kidney cancer subtype. The data on genetic backgrounds, biochemical parameters, histology, different stages of carcinogenesis and metastasis in various animal models of RCC as well as their translational relevance are summarized. Moreover, we shed some light on imaging methods, which can help define tumor microstructure, assist in the analysis of its metabolic changes and track metastasis development.

过去十年中肾细胞癌（RCC）患者预期寿命的增加归因于临床前研究领域发生的变化。如果没有适当的研究，就不可能了解癌症病理生理学和新的治疗选择（包括免疫疗法）的出现。在开发新的疾病治疗方法并将其引入临床实践之前，必须先进行临床前测试，其中动物研究发挥着重要作用。这篇综述描述了肾癌研究中动物模型开发的进展，从最古老的同基因或化学诱导模型开始，经过基因改造小鼠，最后到异种移植，特别是源自患者的阿凡达和人源化小鼠模型。由于肾细胞癌有多种亚型，我们的目标是帮助为特定肾癌亚型选择正确的动物模型。总结了各种肾细胞癌动物模型的遗传背景、生化参数、组织学、不同癌变和转移阶段的数据及其转化相关性。此外，我们还对成像方法进行了一些阐述，这可以帮助定义肿瘤微观结构，协助分析其代谢变化并跟踪转移发展。